Saturday, April 18, 2009

Crazy that in a consumer's paradise like America we need a day to promote shopping, but the cause is a good one: Today is Record Store Day, where all kinds of events and in-store only releases are happening to encourage folks to shop their favorite indie record store in the flesh.

It's ironic to me that my industry -- online commerce -- has posed the greatest threat to my dad's original industry -- the music business. When I was a kid, take your daughter to work day meant hanging out in a recording studio. My dad's vinyl collection overwhelmed his book collection (which was itself monumental), and the last time we sat down to breakfast he mentioned that he'd gotten in touch with an old friend and colleague, who was once the Art Director at Elektra, and to whom he once suggested the concept for the caterpillar logo on the Elektra 45s, above. ('Cause, you know, the Elektra butterfly was on the LPs...)

There are so many commonalities between the online space I've worked in for the last 15 years and the music industry he worked in, starting in the 60s; so many similarities between the way they each grew primordial out of the garage and grew into swanky conference rooms.

My theory? Many of the folks who work in the Internet space would have worked in the music business if they had born a few years earlier. It's the same kind of problem solving, the same kind of rough hewn industry, the same kind of cobble together a creative product and find a market for it so the kids can eat and so you feel like you've made something that matters at the end of the day.

And I'm more than certain that I wouldn't have found my groove as naturally as I did if my dad hadn't encouraged me to do what he did: listen to your heart, first, always, and feed the fire.